Women

The aud­it­or­ium hummed with the bustle of the stu­dents tak­ing their in­stru­ments out of cases and get­ting into seats. There were bursts of dis­cord­ant noise as the vari­ous in­stru­ments ran short scales, loosen­ing up, and there were oc­ca­sional jokes and laughter, a mur­mur of con­ver­sa­tion, and a rattle of chairs and mu­sic stands. The lib­rar­ian trot­ted in a side door with an arm­load of mu­sic folders, fol­lowed by a couple of stu­dents with heav­ier loads, and they began work­ing their way along the rows of the or­ches­tra, put­ting the folders on the stands.